In Jewish folklore, aren't they semidivine beings? So they're presumably hardier and more survivable than man, and just tough through the flood. They're demigods, not exactly mortal. It's like all the various monsters in Greek myth--they all survive the flood of Deucalion because they're not merely mortal.

If God killed off everyone but Noah's family and the seven pairs of all animals in the flood, how did the Nephilim come back later (in Isaiah, for example)?

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I don't think that we should think of Genesis as actual history. It's a recounting of ancient Hebrew myth, or at least the version of ancient Hebrew myth that the writers and the later redactors of the texts favored.

We shouldn't even expect the ancient Hebrew scriptures to be entirely consistent, since they seemingly incorporate many elements absorbed from the preexisting mythology of the people around them. The flood itself seems to be an example of that. The 'nephilim' are very likely another.

So I don't think that it's very useful or enlightening to invent all kinds of fanciful scenarios at this late date in hopes of harmonizing all of it into one consistent whole. It probably wasn't all that consistent to begin with, due to its being derived at different times from different sources.

It's recounting an ancient Mesopotamian myth, probably from Ur, that's way older than any Hebrews. They just picked it up in their herding migrations and wrote it down much later, after they settled down to farming.
Incidentally, every culture that was established alongside rivers - which is to say, almost every culture in the world - has a flood story. Guess why!

I don't think that we should think of Genesis as actual history. It's a recounting of ancient Hebrew myth, or at least the version of ancient Hebrew myth that the writers and the later redactors of the texts favored.

We shouldn't even expect the ancient Hebrew scriptures to be entirely consistent, since they seemingly incorporate many elements absorbed from the preexisting mythology of the people around them. The flood itself seems to be an example of that. The 'nephilim' are very likely another.

So I don't think that it's very useful or enlightening to invent all kinds of fanciful scenarios at this late date in hopes of harmonizing all of it into one consistent whole. It probably wasn't all that consistent to begin with, due to its being derived at different times from different sources.

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I am not sure that you should all story that are in Genesis as a myth. I will agree that Some event are written years later when writing was learned . Even in some present cultures events are passed down to the children and grandchildren by the parents specially in the less developed culture. So I think it is wring to brush out all that is written in Genesis.

originTrump is the best argument against a democracy.Valued Senior Member

I am not sure that you should all story that are in Genesis as a myth. I will agree that Some event are written years later when writing was learned . Even in some present cultures events are passed down to the children and grandchildren by the parents specially in the less developed culture. So I think it is wring to brush out all that is written in Genesis.

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Of all of the books of the bible, genesis is obviously the most likely to be 100% myth. Just because it is a myth it does not mean there is nothing to be learned from it. The purpose of fables and myths is to teach a lesson or principle.

I am not sure that you should all story that are in Genesis as a myth. I will agree that Some event are written years later when writing was learned . Even in some present cultures events are passed down to the children and grandchildren by the parents specially in the less developed culture. So I think it is wring to brush out all that is written in Genesis.

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The historicity of genesis is almost non existent. Written down hundreds of years later. Chinese whispers and typos and religious dogma changing over time. The epic of gilgamesh and other tablets found had passages almost identical to genesis. Flood myths talking about "the world" were surely only talking about their sphere of the world. A small part of the middle east at best and a few cities or towns flooded at worst? Folk tales passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation is hardly the most convincing for me. Eye witness testimony in modern times has been repeatedly shown to be not credible. Multiple people who see the same event even describe wildly different and conflicting testimony. Now imagine how that effect would be magnified over time and generations in oral traditions before it was scripted, then recopied. I believe nephilim to be a poor translation anyway. More likely great men rather than giants or semi divine

The Black Sea deluge is a hypothesized catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea circa 5600 BC due to waters from the Mediterranean Sea breaching a sill in the Bosporus Strait. The hypothesis was headlined when The New York Times published it in December 1996, shortly before it was published in an academic journal.[67] While it is agreed that the sequence of events described did occur, there is debate over the suddenness, dating and magnitude of the events. Relevant to the hypothesis is that its description has led some to connect this catastrophe with prehistoric flood myths.[68]
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The above is from wikipedia. The authors of the original paper thought it might be the origin of Noah's flood story.

The Black Sea deluge is a hypothesized catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea circa 5600 BC due to waters from the Mediterranean Sea breaching a sill in the Bosporus Strait. The hypothesis was headlined when The New York Times published it in December 1996, shortly before it was published in an academic journal.[67] While it is agreed that the sequence of events described did occur, there is debate over the suddenness, dating and magnitude of the events. Relevant to the hypothesis is that its description has led some to connect this catastrophe with prehistoric flood myths.[68]
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The above is from wikipedia. The authors of the original paper thought it might be the origin of Noah's flood story.

I downloaded The Book of Enoch from Amazon to learn more about the Nephilim. I also have a book on mythological creatures that says that the Nephilim were a hybrid race of giants descended from fallen angels who had sex with human women. They possessed superhuman strength and were naturally more aggressive and bloodthirsty than humans. They were known as heroes in ancient times and contributed to the wickedness of man which was one of the reasons why God sent the flood in the first place. There is an outside possibility that Noah's bloodline was still tainted by Nephilim ancestry but surely an all-knowing God would be aware of this as the whole point of choosing Noah to repopulate the Earth with the seed of a good man and his family (but why are so many humans still evil?). I find this subject interesting because the Nephilim are a major part of the latest story line in the TV series Supernatural where their conception is considered to be an abomination by God and they are known to be extremely powerful. Season 13 of Supernatural starts next week. The show takes a lot of inspiration from Christian Mythology and the Nephilim are interesting and mysterious creatures that are finding their way in to entertainment lately.